Martin Hollinetz
Ashoka Fellow, Founder of tech2people GmbH & myAbility Social Enterprise GmbH
Categories: Alumni, Ashoka Fellows, Experts+Speakers, Social Entrepreneurs
***Alumnus of the Ashoka Visionary Program (CEE) 2015/2016***
Martin Hollinetz founded OTELO to develop the creativity, responsiveness, and entrepreneurial quality of citizens across Austria.
He is the founder of OTELO, a network of open technology laboratories, spaces designed for and by people of all ages to experiment, collaborate, communicate, and exchange with community members about topics they want to take action on or simply learn more about. OTELO fosters creativity, principles of sharing, and action based on shared passion in rural parts of Austria previously isolated and devoid of creative spirit. OTELO encourages people to build ideas together in a wide-range of fields including creative economy, media, education, agriculture, robotics, and innovation in corporations.
The OTELO network is replacing the isolation of rural life with participation in regional development. Martin’s systems-changing innovation works at the personal level, group level, and regional level: first OTELO asks what people want and provides the structure to connect those previously not connected (i.e. companies, citizens and politicians). OTELO enables ideas to come to life once a group of five individuals reach consensus together, test their idea, and open it up to the public. OTELO taps into the natural human instinct to share passions, creating the structure to find out what these passions are through self-discovery.
Martin was elected as an Ashoka Fellow from Austria in 2012. Learn more about him on his 
